When they are only Worgen half the time, and not the Kaldorei type Worgen?
It’s like referring to a druid of any race: a cat, a bear, etc.
They also retain their sovereign identity of Gilneans. Like Kul’Tirans do.
I mean, if I had my way, no one in WoW would refer to anything as their race.
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I suspect that it probably has something to do with the fact that, while the playable worgen are all Gilneans, not all Gilneans are worgen.
Or maybe they weren’t really thinking that far ahead back in 2010 and didn’t put too much thought into it, not realising they were going to give us other flavours of humans down the line.
I’ve had some fun with the basic premise of your question in my RP though. Gilnean or worgen, man or a monster? Is my character defined by the Curse, cursed by it, or freed by it? In my profiles, choosing to identify a character as either Gilnean or worgen sets the tone for the entire thing.
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Same reason that Forsaken are called Undead.
There’s a lot of names you could nitpick, to be honest.
The playable race names are just the over simplified ones coders and people who don’t know lore can easily remember… usually.
eyes D-R-A-E-N-E-I
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To me it’s pretty clear. Gilnean is their nationality. Worgen is their biological race. Also there’s non-worgen Gilneans out there, so that’d get confusing as well, from a character creation standpoint. I’d say they’re mechanically called worgen for the same reason Stormwind humans are called humans, and not Stormwinders. Kul Tirans are the exception, because they needed to be called something other than human, which was already taken as a race name. So, Blizzard made a terrible decision, and called them Kul Tirans instead of ThiccBois.
In short, the rationale seems to be that, where possible, Blizz uses a biological/racial name, not a national one. Which makes sense, to be honest. As Keelhaul pointed out, the Forsaken are simply undead, on the character creation screen.
From an RP standpoint of course I suppose you could call your character what you want. For my worgen, I personally use “Gilnean Worgen” and it works fine. But from a gameplay point of view, it’s pretty clear they name their races after the race, not the nation.
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It’s more an identifier, since there are different “brands” of humans now. I still hope to see Stromgarde humans released, especially with Strom being brebuilt and I could imagine them being referred to as “Arathi” since that’s basically what they are.
Maybe give Arathi the thin human model to set them apart. I’d race change my Stromgarde human in a heartbeat if they could actually be a Stromgarde human and not someone from Northshire masquerading as a Highlander.
I’m just not really gettin a mighty barbarian highlander feel from these guys
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It’s really the chest hair that’s the worst part
Looks like he’s suffering from Lord Admiral’s Fever, friend.
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I might be wrong about this, but it was my impression that referring to Worgen as “Gilneans” is a recent development on the developer-side that was mostly led by players. As far as I recall, players started referring to Worgen as “Gilneans” and Blizzard eventually picked it up around Legion.
I don’t remember them using the term before that. But then, I don’t remember much about the Worgen experience. Since there isn’t much of it.
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Lore is one of the last reasons players actually choose a race. The vast majority base it on things like like a particular aesthetic or general fantasy. Worgen are WoW’s werewolves. That’s the core of the aesthetic/fantasy right there: being a wolfman.
That they’re also a subset of citizens of Gilneas afflicted by a special version of the Worgen curse is the in-story justification Blizzard came up with to help give more context to the race in the game’s narrative.
In the end, for the majority of players though, this doesn’t really matter. They’d generally play Worgen whether they were a subset of Stormwindians, or a hidden pack from Lordaeron, or a subset of Night Elves. Because the actual lore behind isn’t as large a factor as is the chance to play a freakin’ werewolf.
I think Blizzard realizes this. They generally use the term “Worgen” in a mechanical sense, as well as in advertising, even if -in the game’s lore/narrative- they make constant reference to their Gilnean origins.
I’m actually curious about this.
For the record, I agree with you, but with two caveats.
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This is unequivocably the case for brand new players. But I’d say that WoW sees a lot fewer of those lately.
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While still true, I think aesthetic and general fantasy are actually combined with lore.
How many people still play Horde races because the idea of being the theoretical underdog appeals to them (ludonarrative dissonance aside, that’s still a part of their identity)? You’d have no way of knowing this by looking at them, but it still factors in.
I’m sure the idea of being the underdog certain appeals to some players, but for others, the Horde is perceived as the aggressive and dominant because it’s full of orcs and trolls and minotaurs. They tend to outnumber Alliance on PvP servers.
It can indeed be blurry.
But the thing that cinched it for me was Void Elves. They’re absolutely the weakest narratively of the Allied Races with the least justification in Lore. But because that fantasy of playing something approaching a classical LOTR/D&D style Elf, particularly in the classical High Fantasy aesthetic that permeates the Alliance, is just soooo strong, that people will overlook that and roll up a Void Elf anyway.
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I demand one handsome and one pretty face for each race so we can choose solely based on the lore, rather than constantly being faced with choices like “nightborne are cool but they look like angry raisins so I can’t play them”
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Gilneas was a kingdom, Worgen is an affliction that defines them.
It also might help because its a better name, just like Undead is easier to understand than Forsaken.